Knife (without Aristotle) does press release without Raniere

July 17, 2017

This is the latest effort of The Knife [formerly of The Knife of Aristotle] to let the world know it is authentic. Note in the press release [below] not one word about Keith Raniere, the founder of this “proprietary analysis and rating system.”

The Knife Media Announces New Fact-Based Subscription News Service

The Knife Media utilizes a proprietary analysis and rating system with rigorous scientific standards, without corporate influence or advertisers, for greater accountability to readers.

Jul 17, 2017, 12:10pm EDT

ALBANY, N.Y., July 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — The Knife Media, an accuracy-focused online news organization, announces the launch of its new subscription-based news service. The advertisement-free service allows readers to cut through the inaccuracies, spin, and bias that are commonly found in corporate-sponsored media.

Using a proprietary analysis and rating system to provide rigorous scientific standards and greater accountability, The Knife delivers news that inspires critical thinking, ethical dialogue, and reader consciousness.

The $15/month subscription service offers three key resources:

1. Micro-summaries: The Knife takes the most relevant and influential U.S. and international news and distills the stories down to their basic facts, which provides a more objective overview of events.

2. Ratings: The Knife analyzes and assigns a numerical value to specific aspects of news reporting, including spin, slant, data use and validity of reasoning. This allows readers to discern the quality of information they consume.

3. Analysis: The Knife provides a critical examination of the ways in which the media reports and distorts events, empowering readers to more easily distinguish fact from fiction.

To ensure it serves only its mission and the interests of its customers, The Knife does not receive support in any way from advertisers or outside companies.

Founded in 2014, The Knife’s mission is to change the way news is reported and history is preserved, by bringing rigorous scientific standards and greater accountability to world media. Its leadership team consists of CEO Rosa Laura Junco and Editor-in-Chief Jens Erik Gould, both professionals with extensive experience in the media industry.

3 Comments

I found a link to the knife and found this side via a google search 180 seconds later and I must say two things.

From my point as a scientist the knife is a piece of junk as it rates news outlets but it gives no information about the underlying methods. But when the methods are kept secret you cannot validate their work. One could even come to the conclusion that they have d100 dice and throw them and write down the results. What they do is a complete black box from the outside. This is not how real journalism works. But nonetheless the idea of identifying what is widely known as fake news is a good one. When that costs 15 bucks on a subscription base it becomes questionable.
I mean I do the same thing with friends of mine and we run a blog that shows interesting to read articles or propaganda from both sides to train it’s readers which is mainly about (cyber-)security but it is hosted without ads and it is free. I mean hosting is 25 $ a month.

On the other hand I can hardly believe what I read here about the man in the background. I cannot understand why people would become that dependent on someone and would not question the teachings of someone else. Whenever someone asks me about my opinion on something I tell them that this is build on a foundation that consists of two things. These are my experiences and my prejudices. This can be wrong and lead me into the wrong direction. How would someone go so far and say that X’s point is correct? Do I need to get out of my bubble?

The idea of having these dimwits censor my news has literally made my night. Bahahahahahahahahahah
I trust news coming out of North Korea more. Or the Onion. Bahahahahahahahahahahaahahahaha.

This has to be the stupidest idea ever for a business. Hiring 1000 monkeys with typewriters would yield a better result. A lot of the people behind the knife were complete idiots prior to the course. I can’t imagine much has changed only now they are complete idiots who are brainwashed.

Of course, The Knife doesn’t say what those allegedly “rigorous scientific standards” are, nor what the supposed quantitative measures for terms like “spin”, “slant”, “distortion”, etc., are within them.

I wonder what The Knife’s measure of James Odato’s award winning February 2012 Times Union article on NXIVM and Raniere would be?